I believe the editorial Clovis News Journal published Tuesday (“Commissioners should be more forthcoming”) was irresponsible. It insinuated the county did something improper or was trying to conceal something from the public with regard to the Orlando Salas lawsuit. I take issue with that allegation. First, the Salas lawsuit was filed in the federal courts […]

The Portales News-Tribune offers this space for community events. To submit or change an announcement, contact the Editorial Department at 356-4481 several days in advance. For Sunday’s paper, items must be submitted by mid-day Wednesday. Please keep submissions brief and to the point as space is limited. Sunday Lamp Lighters Alcoholics Anonymous — 7:30-8:30 p.m., […]

Some 400 firefighters and dozens of other public safety folks from eastern New Mexico and west Texas stepped up to battle Sunday’s massive wind-driven fire that burned at least 17,000 acres of grasslands and three homes across Curry and Roosevelt counties. About 80 percent of those firefighters were volunteers — sales clerks, cowboys, railroad workers, […]

There’s enough medical evidence about the harmful effects of smoking to give anyone pause before lighting up, but deciding what’s good for you and what’s bad for you is your job, not that of the government. A group of North Carolina Democrats introduced last week a bill that would increase the state’s tax on a […]

Now in the fifth day of America’s third war, President Barack Obama has failed to offer Congress or the American people a reasonable and thorough justification for Operation Odyssey Dawn, or a definition of the mission and success in Libya. He sought support from European nations and the Arab League in concert with the United […]

A Republican effort to allow states to opt out of Obamacare has begun in the U.S. Senate, adding another front to the war waged against the nation’s sweeping new health care law. We prefer the finality of a Supreme Court ruling that the law is unconstitutional. Governors of 28 states Wednesday urged President Barack Obama […]

It’s in the nation’s interest that the Obamacare battle be decided quickly. Either the courts, Congress or the states must undo the health care overhaul’s over-reaching excesses. The sooner accomplished, the sooner governments at all levels can reverse the trend of increasing state control and allow health care consumers, providers and insurers to voluntarily work […]

Voters will determine in Tuesday’s special election whether to support a $16 million bond issue for Clovis Municipal Schools construction projects. Those include building a third middle school and replacing one elementary school and several other significant remodeling and replacement projects. We urge voters to consider the following questions and applicable facts: • Are the […]

‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ not priority Regarding your Wednesday editorial “U.S. policies on military gays outdated:” I do not agree the policy should be on the list of items that need to be changed. I was in the Air Force from 1977 to 2005. During this time I never heard of any problems with gay […]

Federal market regulations needed Regarding your Dec. 8 editorial “Government in the way of job creation:” The writer says government does not have a clue of how the economy works and its policies keeps small business from creating jobs. This ideology says markets are always right and need no controls. The article reads, “Reduce taxes, […]

By Tibor Machan: Freedom New Mexico columnist The New York Times ran an editorial Nov. 7 tutoring its readers in how they ought to ignore the background of the accused killer of the soldiers in Texas. All that matters is what he did, not what groups he joined in the past, the paper claimed. So, […]

Whatever one may think of his occupation, the slaying of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller — in church no less — was a heinous and disgusting act. The person who did it and anyone who condoned the act, even indirectly or with a “got what was coming to him” wink and nod, has forfeited the […]

Freedom New Mexico Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency last week announced a blockbuster piece of news: The British government’s credit outlook was reduced from stable to negative, which could lead to the eventual downgrading of the country’s debt from its premiere triple-A rating. “The outlook revision does not trigger a formal re-evaluation of Britain’s […]

In ruling that the Federal Communications Commission was justified in changing its policy toward what are delicately referred to as “fleeting expletives” — words considered indecent or profane uttered once or twice during live broadcasts rather than as part of a prewritten script — the U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped the First Amendment issue that could, […]

Boy, oh boy, he sure sounded like the stern avatar of fiscal responsibility. “We can no longer afford to spend as if deficits do not matter and waste is not our problem,” President Obama said. “We can no longer afford to leave the hard choices for the next budget, the next administration — or the […]

Freedom New Mexico Defending U.S. journalist hypocrisy Your April 17 editorial regarding the unjust detention of reporter Roxana Saberi in Iran certainly stirred strong feelings. “Snatching U.S. citizens from the streets and filing bogus charges against them” is infuriating.Then I realized that my country has been engaged in similar behavior for the past eight years […]

A few smaller banks have begun to repay money loaned to them under the Troubled Assets Relief Program begun with $700 billion in October when the depth of the financial crisis became apparent, and the government decided some troubled financial institutions were “too big to fail.” But interestingly, repayment is not just a matter of […]

There’s potentially good news on the environmental front out of Washington D.C., but it’s probably more than offset by a devastating announcement last week. First, the good news. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Environmental Protection Agency, when upgrading older power plants, may consider costs before demanding use of the most advanced technology, […]

There undoubtedly are things we don’t know about the circumstances and issues surrounding the arrest in Iran of Roxana Saberi, an Iranian-American journalist accused of spying for the United States and tried on that charge Monday in Tehran. The likelihood that she was actually spying seems extremely low, and some have cast doubt as to […]